Here we go again. Trump’s idea of diplomacy is a sane person’s idea of bullying.
Donald Trump has threatened to “blow up” Oman if it fails to “behave” in a casual aside during a cabinet meeting, as the US scrambles to reopen the strait of Hormuz.
I had two students from Oman this past semester. One of the things I, a mere college professor, do is look up my students’ backgrounds to avoid saying something stupid and insensitive, like “we should blow up your home”. If only our president were a tenth as aware.
SHUT THE FUCK UP, DONNY.
Oh, come on! This is an overreaction. He’s only threatening to bomb this particular ally, not occupy it or make it his 51st state or continuously fuck with its exports.
I understood that reference.
Trump doesn’t do mild.
Oman? When has Oman done anything to even get America’s attention, let alone merit a threat of war?
Trump is nothing but a senile old idiot mindlessly reacting the way he’s always reacted when anyone gets in his way. He probably doesn’t even know where Oman is, and sure as hell doesn’t have anything like a decently-thought-out plan for getting anything done. (And all that is assuming he isn’t confusing Oman with some other country.)
Oman has been acting as a mediator between the US and Iran throughout the negotiations. So we know:
1) Trump definitely knows about Oman, which means –
2) This comment was even stupider and more destructive than it looks.
Oman is also in possession of the rocky peninsula that makes up the south side of the Strait of Hormuz (It looks like it should be part of the UAE, but it isn’t). If Iran wants to charge a toll to ships going through the Strait, they will have to persuade Oman to cooperate in order to make it work.
Iran wants to run the strait in conjunction with Oman. There’s approximately zero chance that Oman agrees to that; it prefers open trade through the strait to keep all its allies happy. But if its main ally decides to become an enemy… who knows.
Well, it’s been a pretty good friend to the USA, historically.
Oman signed the first U.S.-Gulf trade treaty in 1833.
In 1840, Oman sent the first Arab diplomat to New York.
In 1980, Oman became the first Gulf state to grant the U.S. military port and airfield access.
Trump’s diplomatic nous is quite evident.
Phone’s ringing, dude
I fully expect Trump to announce that he’s going to bomb Agrabah.
After bombing Agrabah, he will threaten Wakanda, Themyscira, and Kandor.
Oman is not perfect, but of all the Gulf kingdoms it is possibly the least repugnant one and even mildly progressive by local standards.
It is exploiting foreign labour like the other kingdoms but apart from that lacks red flags. For a muslim- majority kingdom it is oddly pragmatic.
So naturally DJT blathers about attacking it.
France TV gets it:
@8 John Morales : Yup. Jim Wright of Stonekettle Station blog hasd a goodpost on this on fb which I noted here :
https://proxy.freethought.online/pharyngula/2026/03/30/infinite-thread-xxxix/comment-page-4/#comment-2301819
Frankly, for NOT impeaching trump already and letting him remain in power I reckon every last Repug should be impeached for that themselves.
Wow. Magical Jim!
Look at your dates — two months minus 3 days is what I see in what I quoted.
Tsk.
All Infinite Threads posts’ urls are like that. Note that PZ’s anchor post for XXXIX is dated March 30, but the first reply is May 14. I’m sure the thread didn’t sit idle for 6 weeks before someone replied.
Ridana, StevoR has a habit of linking to links he links in another thread, which themselves are links.
Facebook is his source. I am never gonna click on facebook.
Also:
What the fucking fuck?
If anything, I reckon Melania does the smacking, if one needs to resort to DV imagery.
(Remember Stormy?)
@ StevoR
Ignore the resident troll. There’s nothing wrong with linking to opinion pieces you think worthwhile, and there is certainly nothing wrong with being transparent and indicating that you are repeating a previous link.
Morales just gets off on being cantankerous and since he almost never has anything valid to say he just makes up shit to complain about. It’s the nature of the troll.
Most of us welcome you sharing content you think worthy of consideration.
In the news: https://www.reuters.com/investigations/greenlands-independence-champion-despised-denmark-trump-changed-his-mind-2026-05-29/
↓
NUUK, Greenland – Aqqaluk Lynge, Greenland’s champion of independence, has undergone a radical conversion.
Half a century ago, the Inuit activist and poet co-founded one of the island’s biggest pro-independence parties, urging fellow Greenlanders to break away from Denmark, which he denounced as an exploitative colonial overlord.
“They must be removed. We will no longer pay the price,” he wrote in a 1975 verse. “Suffering cannot be relieved by consolation. Oppression is something to fight against.”
Now, however, Greenland faces what he sees as a far graver threat: U.S. President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly demanded control of the giant Arctic island, citing national security. As a result, Lynge told Reuters, he now believes his homeland must forever remain part of the realm of Denmark, which he views as its protector from American aggression.
“We feel betrayed by the United States,” the 78-year-old said in an interview at his home outside the capital Nuuk, where from his window you can spy chunks of ice floating in a nearby fjord. “We are in a very difficult situation, where the only ones that can save us today are Denmark and Europe.”
Lynge is not alone. The U.S. president’s comments have triggered a mighty backlash that has helped alter Greenland’s political trajectory – much like in Canada, where patriotic anger at Trump’s rhetoric about making Canada the “51st state” of America swept Mark Carney’s Liberals back to power last year, after they looked destined for defeat.
Well, Greenland could always become the 11th Canadian province. It would settle the bitter dispute over Han Island ;-).
@7 numerobis
Sadly, given how badly Trump has utterly f-ed up things, short of the EU getting involved and helping Oman to negotiate some sort of free trade through there, the best we can likely hope for would be a stalemate situation between Iran and Oman, with both sides fighting over whether or not ships are allowed through without constant harassment. That being said, I don’t have great hopes that, as long as Trump, and the loonies that work for him and/or puppeted him into this mess, are involved in any negotiations that are going on there, any outcome will be possible that doesn’t involve Iran getting a some sort of “fee” for ships going through the strait. We are way past there not being some sort of massive, expensive, and seriously messed up, concessions having to be made to them, to accomplish anything at all, let alone a complete reversion to the prior open state of things.
Basically, Iran will end up getting what it wants, if Trump keeps pushing, because Trump, and the people who work for/with/behind him are idiots, and have about as much sense with respect to diplomacy as a rabid dog biting a car tire, while the car is moving, and if he runs away, what ever the result of any sane negotiate end up being will a) not include the US at all, likely, and/or b) be very freaking expensive.
The scary computer AI in The Forbin Project would have been a more competent – not to mention more benevolent- autarch that the Trump crowd.
.
As for people in Lebanon and Palestine, their best hope is the yellow GOP congressmen bombarding Trump with the message the war is a guarantee for Dem control of congress.